And a Sprinkling of Fairy Dust
by CopperCaramel
Summary: No matter the place, no matter the magic, prejudice is always the same. James Sirius Potter saves and is saved by a person who's predecessors are wholly hated by his family. What can you do when even the Wizarding World is filled with unfair prejudice?


**A/N: I'mmmm bacck!**

**Was stuck with a pulled muscle in my neck and back, away from the computer on bed rest. :/**

**This is just something I had lying around. I won't update it a lot, just when I'm stuck without a computer and only have my phone to type on... **

**Read, lemme know what you all think!**

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><p>James Sirius Potter was going to play a prank on his brother. Albus hadn't done anything to deserve it but James was bored. Albus was a bit of a goody two shoes anyway, he needed a little toughening up anyway. James might bully his little brother a little but nobody else was allowed the privilige.<p>

Uncle George had asked him to send him a toilet seat, for reasons unknown to James but he was going to do it anyway. The seat was sitting on his bed waiting for him when he went to his dorm that night, all that was between then and now was weekend homework and the prank he was going to play on Albus.

He had it all planned out, all he was waiting for was his hired help. Elaine McLaggen had had the biggest crush on James for as long as they had known each other, now she was about to seduce his brother under his orders. She'd lure him to the spot and the plan would unfold.

His dad had always said he was like Sirius was when Sirius was in school, a bit of a player. James didn't disagree. He did play girls, they practically begged for it. Throwing themselves at him and then expecting a relationship, not likely with James. He always said he would never settle down with a girl and get married, well that was until his mother had threatened to hex him out of his sexist ways.

Elaine arrived on cue and winked at him from across the room. James realised a little late that promising her a snog was a little nauseating, especially since she slept around. Albus was sitting on the floor in the Gryffindor common room with Rose Weasley their cousin. Albus and Rose were really close, along with that Slytherin Scorpius. He watched as Albus was led coyly from the room and out towards the Great Hall. He followed at a distance and was honestly about to put phase two into action when he suddenly was sent crashing to the floor.

The thing that had knocked him over was a petite blonde. Definitely a she, with sparkling orange coloured eyes and a finely shaped face. Under normal circumstances he would have immediately noticed how beautiful she was, even now it registered subconsciously. These, however, were not normal circumstances. The girl in front of him looked to be his age, but she didn't go to Hogwarts. There was also the whole fact that she was dripping blood and barely conscious, yeah that definitely wasn't normal. She drew her wand quick as a flash and had it pointed at his throat before he could even exhale fully.

Her eyes held a feverish quality and she hurriedly pushed herself off him. "Sorry mate." she said quickly and started to stagger away. She dripped blood as she went, her face pale, entire body shaking like a leaf. James got the impression that she would hex him without hesitation.

Maybe it was because of that he wanted to help her. Maybe it was her oddly coloured eyes. Maybe it was the pain and warines he had seen in her eyes. It simply could have been that he, like his father, had a hero complex and didn't like to see anyone hurt.

He jumped forward and caught her just as she was about to fall. "Here," he said, "Let me help you." All thoughts of his prank were replaced by a determination to help her. "Headmistress's office." the girl gasped out and James slung her arm around his neck and escorted her there.

Upon seeing the girl, McGonagall's eyes widened to an almost comical width. "Go Potter," she snapped and took the girl from him without another dashing off to the hospital wing, the girl now unconscious and cradled in her arms.

James walked back to the common room dazed and worried. He simply walked zombie-like to his dorm and closed the curtains. He threw the toilet seat on the floor and lay down atop the blankets, fully clothed and fell into a restless sleep.  
>Albus woke him the next morning. He stood beside his bed glaring at his older brother wand sparking dangerously. "Explain." he snapped and James was reminded that his brother could be quite scary when angry, he had inherited his sudden quick temper from their mother.<p>

James suddenly remembered the girl from the afternoon before and his face changed drastically from the mockingly polite but bored brother to a worried and slightly scared boy's look. Albus could be a little oblivious to emotions sometimes but he caught on when something was serious.

"James! What's wrong?" Albus said rushing to his brother's trunk and pulling out clothes for him to throw on. James did so, explaining to Albus about the girl from the night before and McGonagall's reaction to her.

Albus was slack jawed on the other side of the curtain when James emerged from his section of the dorm. James didn't see what was so surprising about it all until Albus, ever the logical and smart one, pointed it out. "She apparated into Hogwarts. Which means she's powerful enough to lift the enchantments that make you unable to apparate here!" James found it hard to close his mouth from the suprise. One of the few girls he had actually dated had told him it wasn't attractive, funny how you remembered things randomly.

James was out the door and nearly at the hospital wing as soon as he gained control of his shock and Albus trailed along behind him like a lost puppy. When the were outside the hospital wing James hesitated, "It might be better if you wait in the common room Albie, I dunno if we'll be allowed see her."

As it turned out James wasn't allowed see her. For the simple reason McGonagall wasn't sure she could be trusted. It didn't make much sense to James as to why she shouldn't, he didn't think she had done anything wrong except apparate into the castle. Wisely he kept his mouth shut and made a detour back to his dorm to retrieve the invisibility cloak and the Marauder's Map he had taken from his father's drawer. Professor McGonagall and Professor Longbottom were in the hospital wing alongside two dots he didn't recognise. Athene Lestrange and Dean Thomas. He was betting Athene was his mystery girl, Dean Thomas' name sounded familiar but for the life of him he couldn't remember from where.

James snuck back up to the hospital wing. He knocked loudly on the door and slipped in when Madam Pomfrey opened it, peering suspiciously into the gloom of the corridor. When she decided nobody was out there, she returned to a bed with curtains surrounding it, complaining quietly and nervously about it to McGonagall. Professor Longbottom was staring at the girl before them queasily. It was Athene. She was lying on the hospital bed, every muscle in her body rigid. James almost gasped at the sight of her. She was in excruciating pain and sweating profusely as she tried to stick the pain without crying out.

Dean Thomas was standing beside her bed eyes closed, wand at the ready. There were muted mewls coming from Athene and her breath came in sharp gasps. "Dean," Professor Longbottom grinded out, "That's enough, Dean! That's enough damn it!" The professor seemed to share Athene's pain, he couldn't bear see her writhing in pain before him.

Dean Thomas didn't stop until Professor Longbottom drew his wand and repelled him. The tall man stood trembling, "She is trustworthy, but the powers! I've never seen anything quite like it."

Longbottom was eyeing Dean Thomas like something that had crawled out of the back end of a troll. When James saw him in school he found it had to think of the clumsy Professor Longbottom as the man who spent lots of time with him and his family. Now he could see the resemblance. Neville was always clumsy but he was fiercely confident when he found need for it.

Athene struggled to open her eyes, her breathing was laboured and she looked weak. "I told you I wasn't any harm. I - I managed to finally escape it all and I turn myself into this. I need help ma'am, I need it desperately." She spoke to McGonagall alone, as if she knew who was in charge. Probably did, James thought to himself.

Neville still had his eyes on Dean Thomas, "You're abusing your power Dean. Going through people's thoughts, their deepest emotions and fears, it's not something you do lightly and never something you do carelessly and violently. Legilimency shouldn't be mauling someone's mind." Neville's voice was quiet, dangerously quiet and trembling with suppressed rage. James had heard him speak like this once before when he had been at his angriest.

Dean said nothing. He simply turned and walked to the door and out of the room. Neville sighed and relaxed into a chair, "It's like my parents all over again." he said shakily. Madam Pomfrey had rushed to Athene as soon as Dean Thomas had left.

She bustled over the girl for ages until she was conscious enough to croak out, "Please, enough. I'll do it myself, I just need some sleep and I'll be out of your hair ma'am." Madam Pomfrey looked scandalized, "You won't be going anywhere for awhile," she said firmly, "Drink this." She handed the girl a sleeping potion to drink and shooed the two professors from her bedside, drawing the curtains behind her. "It wont knock you out too quick," Madam Pomfrey called back, "Give it fifteen minutes or so and you'll fall asleep."

James snuck into her cubicle. The girl had set the vial of potion, untouched, on the bedside locker and lain between the sheets of the bed. James removed the invisibility cloak and stepped up to her.

"Touching a girl when she has her eyes closed is extremely rude don't, you think?" She said and then opened her eyes to look at him. James flushed, "I wanted to speak to you. I uh, showed you the way to the headmistress' office." Something about the girl told him that she was fiercely independent, the fact she had wanted to nurse her own wounds was evidence enough, and she wouldn't be happy she had needed help.

She smiled at him, "Thank you, Mr Potter. I'm very grateful." He stepped slightly closer, "James," he breathed, "Call me James." She nodded solemnly, "Thank you, James. I probably owe you my life." James blushed harder and murmured nonsense to his feet without looking at her.

She cocked her head, "What did you want to speak to me about?" James scratched the back of his neck awkwardly, "I was wondering how you came to be in the state you were in last night." She drew a sharp breath, "Before I tell you - yes I am going to tell you - you must understand the fact that I am not like my family. They're evil, evil people and I am not."

James nodded and she continued, "You've probably heard of Bellatrix Lestrange." James gasped. That's where he had known her surname from. Athene grimaced but went on with her story. "She was my grandmother, my father was her only child. Her secret child. My father was raised amongst evil witches and wizards, each one loyal to Voldemort, fanatically loyal. My mother too was one such witch, Voldemort was all she could see. My father and mother married because they were both Purebloods and hoping to repopulate all the wizarding world with Purebloods. I was their only child, my mother died at child birth and my father was killed not too long after by Aurors. I grew up with evil people, all desperate to turn me evil and crush my spirit. They failed. For sixteen long years I stayed with them, being tortured nearly to the brink of insanity until finally they had had enough. I wasn't going to change, so they tried to kill me. It didn't work, I beat them all in a duel and took off. I came here because Hogwarts is the place they all loathed and feared, because this is where I've always wanted to be." She licked her lips when she was done. Her face was pale and she was trembling slightly.

James reached out and took her hand. She tensed but when he simply held it calmingly she relaxed and fell back into the pillows with an uneasy sigh. In seconds flat she was asleep, leaving James to think about the story she had told and the pain this girl before him had gone through.

-oOo-

Madam Pomfrey, upon seeing James unconscious half lying on Athene's bed had shrieked in suprise. Her noisy entrance had been more than enough to awaken the two teenagers before her.

James staggered upright, wiping drool from his mouth and blushing. "Potter! What are you doing here?" He opened his mouth to answer when Athene answered for him. "Oh, I'm sorry ma'am, I went looking for him to thank him last night and needed some help getting back. I probably would have broken my legs falling down the stairs if it weren't for his cushioning charm." Athene had the nerve to look guilty and hang her head as if in shame. Madam Pomfrey recovered, "Oh you shouldn't tire yourself out dear. You need to rest and recouperate, some of your wounds are cursed!" James gaped, "You never told me you were cursed," he said calmly.

Madam Pomfrey chose that time to tell him, "I've seen her memories of the past week in a pensieve, we counted that she had the cruciatus curse placed on her eighty nine times over the course of the week and deflected the killing curse thirteen times. She had the imperius curse placed on her and fought her way out of it. The girl is a walking miracle."

James stared at her. She had told him her story but she had left out the horrors of it. "Ma'am, if you please, I'd rather people's vision of me wasn't clouded by accidental heroics," Athene said boldly, a flush creeping up from her neck. James suddenly realised her state of undress. She simply had a vest on and by the looks of it no trousers. He had seen plenty of girls completely naked but with her it seemed different, awkward, scary, exciting? He shook his head to clear it of the thoughts and resumed what he hoped was a friendly, not lusting, smile. She smiled back nervously, unsure as to what you say to someone who had heard your worst nightmare described to them in an almost clinical, if admiring, attitude.

Maybe it wasn't her worst nightmare. She had had plenty worse, she shuddered to think about those. For now her worst nightmare was that of the unknown, add a little dash of fearing rejection and you had her described to a T. James wouldn't understand that, he looked as if he had lived a pampered life, away from the perverse society she had lived her life in.

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><p><strong>AN: I have this slight obsession with James Sirius Potter, everyone else seems to forget him and focuses on Albus, Rose and Scorpius you see. So be prepared for a whole load of JSP! :D**

~**ShazzaBlack**_...x_


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